Opportunistic Bulldogs too much for Greyhounds
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
FULL PHOTO GALLERY | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
The Brantford Bulldogs big guns went off on Friday.
The line of Patrick Thomas between Cole Brown and Nick Lardis combined for eight points, as the Bulldogs defeated the Soo Greyhounds 6-4 in front of 4,573 at GFL Memorial Gardens.
“The book on those guys is they’re very good in transition and very good on special teams,” said Hounds head coach John Dean, whose team completed a stretch of three straight against elite (London, Kitchener, Brantford) OHL opposition. “We made a few mistakes and they ended up in the back of our net.”
Along with capitalizing on turnovers, Brantford scored two tap-in, power-play goals and also scored twice on shots netminder Nolan Lalonde would likely want back.
That said, Dean spoke of how “people might be sick of hearing this, but I thought our guys played a great game. I thought we were fantastic in the second period, and in the third period, we fought back.”
The coach went on to say it’s difficult for him to not be happy with the effort.
“We need to make sure these turn into wins. But the last two games, in my opinion, we’ve played very, very well,” added Dean, whose club was fresh off of Wednesday’s 5-4 shootout loss to Kitchener. “We’ve made mistakes the opposition has capitalized on, but we’ve played 60 full minutes.”
“We left it all out there,” said centre Tate Vader, who was counted on to a greater degree due to the absence of fellow centre Owen Allard. “Our work ethic as a group was unreal.”
Travis Hayes, who finished with a goal and an assist, also liked the way in which the Soo competed.
“We played hard – the second period was probably our best,” said Hayes, whose club fell to 19-26-1-1 heading into Sunday’s 5:30 p.m. start in Saginaw. “And we played hard until the end of the game.”
However, the second-year winger pointed out how he and his teammates “have to minimize turnovers. They’re a good team in transition and we kind of played into their hands a little bit.”
Hayes also said the mistakes the Hounds made cost them the game.
With the score tied 2-2, a Soo turnover at the Brantford blue-line resulted in the Bulldogs taking the lead. Brown gobbled up the puck and shoveled it to a streaking Lardis, who had gotten behind the Hounds defence.
Lardis let fly from the high slot and the puck got under the glove of Lalonde, who has been brilliant, especially of late.
But this goal, at the 9:12 mark, was out of character for the veteran goalie.
Early in the third, the visitors cashed in on the power play. At the top of the left circle, Jake O’Brien found Thomas alone at the right side of the Hounds net. The overage centre’s second power-play marker – the first was also a tap-in off a cross-ice feed by O’Brien – at the 44-second mark gave Brantford a 4-2 lead.
Five minutes later, Brady Martin’s shot from the top of the right circle appeared to hit a Bulldogs player in front. It eluded goaltender David Egorov and the Hounds trailed 4-3.
But just 44-seconds later, at the 6:19 mark, Tomas Hamara’s shot from the high slot went through the five-hole on Lalonde and that made it 5-3.
Asked about Lalonde’s performance, Dean cited the goalie’s “strong body of work” here, and spoke of how he had “no problem with Nolan’s game tonight.”
Trailing by two goals, the home team wasn’t out of it.
With the Hounds on the power play and Lalonde on the bench for a sixth attacker, Noel Nordh slid home a rebound at 19:17 of the third to make it 5-4.
However, Lardis, who finished with two goals and an assist, scored an empty-netter to put it away.
Asked about his big producers up front, Bulldogs head coach Jay McKee spoke of how “they’ve been very good for us all season long. And Egorov has been fantastic in the games he’s played in. He’s pushing (Ryerson) Leenders for playing time.”
Like Lardis, Thomas finished with two goals and an assist as Brantford made it 10 wins in 11 starts, improving to 28-16-4-0. Hamara had a goal and two assists while Brown scored once and assisted on another. O’Brien contributed two assists.
Martin had a goal and two assists in defeat, as the Hounds rallied from a 2-0 deficit. On a night when they were outshot 34-32, Brady R. Smith had the other goal for the Greyhounds.
When asked, Dean said he understood how fans can be frustrated hearing the coach praise his charges after tough losses.
“Fans have every right to be frustrated. They want to see two points,” the Soo coach explained. “But as a coach, at this time of year, it doesn’t make sense to (verbally) beat on these guys. We have to point out the positives in order to find a way to get over this hump.”
Notes: The Hounds certainly missed the contributions of Allard, injured following a thundering hit by defenceman Max Dirracolo in Wednesday’s game with Kitchener. Dean said the Utah Hockey Club prospect is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, but wouldn’t play on Sunday.
Forward Chris Brown (upper body) is week-to-week.
Sault native Nikolas Rossetto made his Gardens debut on Friday. The Brantford winger was chosen in Round 3 of the 2024 OHL draft. The 16-year-old (2008 birth year) didn’t register a point but has a 5-6-11 stat line in 42 games.